Manchester households making £1,500 a year renting out their driveways

Householders in Manchester are making an average of more than £1,500 a year from renting out their driveways to other motorists.

Recently released data from 2020 has revealed that the city was among the 10 most profitable in the UK for homeowners letting other drivers use their parking spaces.

The figures from parking operator Your Parking Space, show that despite long periods of lockdown over the last 12 months, homeowners are making more money than ever, possibly because commuters are trying to avoid public transport.

Those in Manchester made an average of £1,503 last year renting their parking spaces via the service, placing the city seventh in the list of most profitable locations.

The average income across the UK’s 50 most profitable locations is £1,057.88, with particularly high demand in Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Oxford, Edinbugh, Brighton, Cambridge, Birmingham and Reading, where the average annual income was above £1,300. Predictably, incomes were highest in London, where then average was more than £2,200.

Householders can list their properties on the firm’s site and set their own costs, with charges ranging from £2 to £25 an hour or more for privately-owned spots in the most desirable city centre locations.

Harrison Woods, CEO of Your Parking Space, said: “Despite an unprecedented year, the demand for rented driveway parking remained high.

“This is most likely because many people abandoned public transport and, where allowed, chose to drive and park as close as possible to their place of work, which more often than not was on a pre-bookable empty driveway.”

Some similar schemes such as Just Park and CoCharger are taking the driveway rental concept further and offering electric car owners access to private charging points at members’ homes, while Your Parking Space announced last year it was partnering with Atlas Hotels to offer its members access to the leisure chain’s car parks and chargers.